Repairs and snagging in Portlaoise

The work here is not the same as in an older town

Most of what has been built in Portlaoise in the last twenty years came with the commuter growth, and newer housing fails in its own particular way. Not damp and not settlement, mostly: shrinkage cracks along plasterboard joints in the first two heating seasons, doors that stop closing once the frame has dried out, silicone that was run in a hurry on handover day, and a list of small things signed off at handover that nobody came back for.

None of that is dramatic and all of it is annoying, which is exactly the category that goes unfixed for years because it is too small to interest a builder.

What I get called for here

• Snag lists — the items still outstanding after handover
• Shrinkage cracks filled and made good properly, not smeared over
• Doors re-hung or adjusted once the house has settled
• Silicone in kitchens and bathrooms stripped and redone
• Shelving, wardrobes and storage put into rooms that came empty
• TV brackets, mirrors and anything heavy that has to go into a plasterboard wall and stay there
• Attic boarding and access
• Fences, gates and the garden end of a new house

How the distance is handled

Forty-five kilometres each way is most of an hour of the day before any work starts, so I do not charge a call-out fee and then pretend the drive is free — I ask for enough work to make the trip worth making. In practice that is a half-day, and the fairest thing I can do is say so before you have arranged your morning around me.

Where it works well is a booking made a week or two out rather than an emergency. If it is urgent and small, someone in Portlaoise itself will serve you better, and I would rather tell you that than take the job and be the third tradesman who let you down.

For anything larger — a room plastered and painted, a bathroom, fitted storage — the distance stops being a factor, because those are days on site rather than an hour.

On snagging, so nobody is disappointed

I fix snags. I am not a snagging surveyor and I do not issue the report — that is a separate qualification and you want it from someone who holds it. If you already have a report, send it and I will tell you which items on it are mine and what they cost.

Where a fault is the builder’s to put right under warranty, I will say so rather than take your money for it. That is worth more to me than one morning of work.

Getting a price

Send the list on WhatsApp with a photo of anything hard to describe. You get an estimate of the hours in writing, free, before anything is booked — and if the list is too short to justify the drive, I will tell you that instead of taking the booking.

My work carries a 6-month guarantee.

Other towns

• Plastering in Carlow
• Handyman work in Carlow
• Bathroom renovations in Kilkenny
• Handyman work in Tullow
• Plastering in Bagenalstown
• Handyman work in Athy

Not on the list? I work within 150 km of Carlow. Past about fifty, the drive only makes sense on the bigger jobs — message me and I will tell you straight whether yours is one of them.